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Population size estimate is often very high on management and conservation agendas for many wildlife populations. The best currently available tool to obtain this parameter is noninvasive genetic sampling paired with mark-recapture modelling, which is now routinely done in many populations. However, in large populations where a lot of samples must be obtained if any meaningful estimate is to be had, the analyses can be very expensive and time consuming, often delaying results that are critical for management. We used laboratory robotics and recently developed genotyping methods that utilize high-throughput sequencing (HTS) to speedup the analyses and decrease costs. In anintensive three-month transboundary effort in autumn of 2015, in collaboration with ~2500 volunteers, we collected 4687 samples over the entire bear range in Slovenia and Croatia. After ironing out specifics related to automation of DNA extraction and processing of big data, the analysis was completed in roughly nine months. Increased throughput and lower costs allowed us to analyze 4370 of the collected samples, 45.7% more than we budgeted for. The population size in both countries at the end of 2015, after yearly mortality and before reproduction, was 1392 bears (1247-1583 95% CI), and sex ratio 58.9% F : 41.1% M. Since noninvasive genetics is increasingly becoming the go-to method for estimating the size of bear populations, there is a need for this to become fast and cost-effective. In this first large-scale study using HTS we showed that genotyping using this approach provides a big step in that direction, and we managed to do it with transboundary cooperation of two countries. In addition, the benefit of obtaining genotypes at the DNA sequence level makes the data completely future- proof and transferable between laboratories. Considering the rapid advances in DNA sequencing technology we feel that this is how such studies will be done in the future, for a fraction of the current costs.

International audience; In plants, synthesis of the iron-storage protein ferritin in response to iron is not regulated at the translational level; this is in contrast to ferritin synthesis in animals. Part of the response is mediated through a transduction pathway which involves the plant hormone abscisic acid. In this work, we report the cloning and sequencing of two maize ferritin genes (ZmFer1 and ZmFer2) coding for members of the two ferritin mRNA subclasses, FM1 and FM2, respectively. Although plant and animal ferritins are closely related proteins, a major difference is observed between the organisation of the genes. Both maize ferritin genes are organised as eight exons and seven introns, the positions of which are identical within the two genes, while animal ferritin genes are interrupted by three introns, at positions different from those found in maize genes. Sequence divergence between the 3' untranslated regions of these genes has allowed the use of specific probes to study the accumulation of FM1 and FM2 transcripts in response to various environmental cues. Such probes have shown that FM1 and FM2 transcripts accumulate with differential kinetics in response to iron; FM1 mRNA accumulate earlier than FM2 mRNA and only FM2 transcripts accumulate in response to exogenous abscisic acid or water stress. Mapping of the transcriptional initiation region of these two genes defined their 5' upstream regions and allowed a sequence comparison of their promoters, which appeared highly divergent. This raises the possibility that the differential accumulation of FM1 and FM2 mRNAs in response to iron, abscisic acid and drought could be due to differential transcription of ZmFer1 and ZmFer2.